Sabotaged by competition, please help!

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tdawg69

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I'm not too technical or into all this SEO, but I do run a highly successful niche blog that has consistently shown up on google as the 1st - 3rd result for my most important search strings. I have never engaged in any blackhat tactics.

A couple of weeks ago, the blog's income has plummeted - I'm suddenly down to the bottom of the first page. I can't imagine why.

I decided to check google webmaster tools, and I notice that I have in excess of 8000 links coming to my site from random websites ranging from dental care tips or bbq reviews. I checked dozens of these sites, they have nothing to do with my blog and as far as I can tell exist only to generate backlinks.

The last time I checked webmaster tools would have been maybe a couple of months ago, when my links were sitting around the 600 mark.

There's really only a handful of serious competitors that I have to contend with, and through process of elimination I have determined which one is responsible for doing this.

What options do I have for
a) retaliation
b) fixing my site

Many thanks for any input!
 
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a) BHW says turn cheek, some others say two eyes for one toenail. BHW is right sometimes since you gain no money with revenge, others are sometimes right since revenge feels better than money. Who is to say what is the right thing to do. Best listen to mommy?
b) Think you need to dish-and-vow them.

Hope this helps. :)
 
You can try to use the Google Disavow tool to get rid of these backlinks. This might be helpful. I would consider to spend the time on promotion of your website instead of looking for revenge. Just my 2 cents.
 
The best strategy is to make your site better. Your not penalized or else you wouldn't be on the first page IMO. I would focus on building better links to move your site back up to the top.
 
Google does a great job of making sure this cant happen, so its your imagination! So close your eyes, click your heels and say "Matt Cutts" 3 times in a row!
Hmm well it was worth a try!
On a serious side, try the disavow tool and try for some good backlinks, maybe do some guest blogs on high quality sites? Good luck! Also check the anchor tags, if they are all the same maybe do some link building yourself with some more diversity.
I would go for promoting my site instead of revenge, just to make it harder for anyone to try this again.
 
Thank goodness. Had no idea there was a disavow tool.

With 8000+ links it'll take a while, but at least I can do something.
 
Nah, there is a way to do that in bulk. He was on about a button for that in his vid. It is posted twice on the forum so you should be able to find it.
Good to read you are helped. :)
 
Thank goodness. Had no idea there was a disavow tool.

With 8000+ links it'll take a while, but at least I can do something.
Click to expand...

Take a look at this thread:

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/513235-matt-cutts-talks-about-negative-search-engine-optimization.html

The situation is not hopeless :)
 
Your looking at this all wrong IMO. If your relying on top 3 ranking to stay afloat your playing Russian roullette. Use this experience as a lesson and find other sources of reliable traffic. Organic traffic should only be a small piece of what makes up the traffic to your site.
 
you can disavow but my experience has been pretty crap. i used it and the results were zero. But no harm in you trying it.
 
If your site is very good and as big as you sort of suggest - then absorbing 3000 links is no real issue.
If you have well under 250,000 words on it, and it's under 3 years and has not had links built consistently over it's lifetime at a good low level, then a sudden blast of 3000 can rock it about.

It's unlikely to be a permanent problem. Ignoring it seems to work almost as well as the LDTool - but for peace of mins, and as it seems to be a pure neg SEO attempt - then you might as well use the LDT.... be warned, it can take several weeks. In the mean time I would add say 10,000 words a week to your blog articles, images, videos, comments etc. 45 minutes work a day should do it.

Scritty
 
My first reaction would be to get even. I would send my cousin Tony to talk to him :)

BUT...

Then I would realize that I need to spend some time improving my site and getting my rep back. An when that is all said and done, then I'd call Tony to make sure it didnt happen again :drinking2
 
Have you noticed a competitior suddenly rise to the top? Or have you got into an argument with someone? Some people can be very patient and wait until revenge comes along. Can you let us know how you get on with disavow tools? Interested to see if you get success there. Hope it works out for you!
 
Like suggested, use the disavow tool.

But this problem can come back because you do not have enough quality backlinks. I'd suggest after u disavow them, u start building on backlinks so they can't just bump you off the first place with one blast.
 
Going through this myself, it can also be a pain to track all of the links since google likes to show you just some of the links.

You can indeed disavow in bulk by disavowing the entire domain so all links coming from that domain are ignored, it will be setup like this in your doc file- domain:sitewithspamlinks.com, after you have disavowed, if you got the standard warning email from google, then you should also file a reconsideration request.
 
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